Moscow authorities have closed a vegetable warehouse and detained 1,200 people after a violent Sunday protest in Moscow’s residential area of Biryulyovo, where a young Russian was allegedly stabbed to death by a migrant last week.

A car with money and weapons has been found as Moscow police
raided a warehouse which locals call the main attraction for
migrants. On Sunday it turned into the scene of a mass anti-migrant protest, which ended with nearly
400 arrests.

A crowd of locals took to the streets in response for the fatal
stabbing of a young Muscovite, which is now being blamed on a
migrant. They now say the killing of a 25-year-old Russian was
merely the last straw.

Moscow nationalists and football fans were quick to use the
situation to also take part in the protests. Initial gathering of
locals was then supported by clearly anti-migrant attuned groups
of people.

It appeared that locals have been calling on Moscow authorities
to check the warehouse and relocate it to the outside of the
city. As it is just 1km from the living area, people mainly
complained about late hour work activity, noise from trucks, high
levels of criminality and numerous migrants who rent apartments
in the area. Dozens live in each apartment at the same time.
Residents say to meet a Slavic-looking man after midnight is
nearly impossible.

But authorities’ reply was diplomatic and short:
“[Pokrovskaya] warehouse is a strategic object of food
supplies for Moscow and, hence, the transfer is
impossible.”

Those supplies are mainly coming from Russia’s Republic of
Dagestan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and other
neighboring CIS states.

According to Magomed Tolboev, an honorary president of a company
which manages the warehouse, with closing Pokrovskaya, Moscow may
lose more than 5 percent of all food supplies.

“You cannot close it. You just keep it in order. Now let the
police be responsible for [the suspect],” Tolboev told RSN
radio station.

In his opinion, responsibility for what is happening lies on
corrupt local authorities and law enforcement.

“This whole situation is to blame on corrupt practices of
municipality leaders, administration and so on, who cover all
this. They need to ask themselves why they give migrants
nationality and a work permit without due process. We cannot look
after thousands of people,” he said.

Now there are informally three main demands. First of all people
want the young man’s killer to be found and prosecuted. Next, for
the warehouse to be closed and heads of regional administration
and police department to be sacked. They suspect the latter of
running a protection racket involving the migrants.

Another hot spot in Sunday’s rally was a shopping mall.
Protesters destroyed it first, after unsuccessful attempts to try
reaching authorities.

Some now say the reason why a crowd of 300 people decided to
attack it is that the mall is an “enclave” of migrants, where
they not only trade, but also hide from authorities.

Reuters reported that another 450 were detained in northeastern
Moscow, also near a vegetables market employing migrant workers.
However Russian media reported that only 80 people were detained
and the Russian Interior Ministry said that there was no
connection with the Biryulyovo raid.

For the last few years, people say, the situation in the area has
remained tense because migrants are not polite to local
residents.

“Are they guests? We are guests here and they are locals,”
a woman from one of the apartment buildings in the area told the
media.

The first witness accounts given by a girlfriend of killed
Muscovite Egor Shcherbakov also assert that the attacker, whom
she described as a male native of the Caucasus, approached them
first and tried to harass her. As her boyfriend moved to protect
her, the man stabbed Egor in the heart.

The attacker managed to escape. Moscow police still do not know
his whereabouts. A 1-million-ruble (around US$31,000) bounty has
been placed for the capture of the suspect.

Several suspects in the murder of Egor Shcherbakov have been
detained, Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin said. He added that
witnesses would be able to identify the suspects, and that the
investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, the Russian Migrants Federation has urged ethnic
minority communities to remain on alert in the wake of
disturbances of Biryulyovo.

"Attacks are likely in different parts of Moscow. Nationalists
are in a very aggressive mood," Mukhammad Amin, the
federation’s president, told Interfax, adding that migrants and
foreign nationals should “stay away from public places."

Amin said he was in Biryulyovo and described the situation there
as “very dangerous.”

“I could see hundreds of drunk young men and many
nationalists," he said.